I was incorrect on the last post when I said that the antibody that was attacking Max's kidney was gone. We actually had not done that test yes at the time of that post. We are now waiting for the results of those labs that were drawn on Friday.

So Max had his fourth and final IVIG infusion on Friday. The infusion itself went very well, but Max's white blood cell count was extremely low (his was 500 when it's suppose to be 1,500-8,000). Yeah really low, so the doctors ordered for him to get a dose of neupogen which is a medication to increase white blood cells. They also checked his labs for a few viruses that could have been causing the rise- all of which came back negative.

Having a white cell count of 500 meant that Max was more susceptible to infection, so we were told to keep him in for the weekend to protect him from getting sick. So we spent the beautiful weekend inside the house.

Monday we went to have repeat labs drawn to make sure his white count took to the dose of neupogen. It did- his count went up to 3,000. Unfortunately, that was the only good news that we got from those labs. Max's creatinine has gone back up to .5.

What dose this mean? It could mean a few things- Max is still in rejection or Max's Prograf dose (anti-rejection medication) is so high that it's causing the rise in his creatinine. The only way to find out what's causing the rise is to go in for another biopsy.

It never gets easy to sit hear and wait for that phone to ring. You're waiting to hear the results of your child's tests or waiting to see what the panel suggests we do next. Suddenly the phone rings and the caller ID says Cincinnati Children's 513-636-0000. My heart drops to my stomach while I wait to hear what Dr. Ben has to say. Today, Dr. Ben told me that everyone thinks that we need to move forward with getting another biopsy.

So, on Thursday at 9:30am, Max will be going in for his 2nd biopsy of the kidney. We should have preliminary results sometime Thursday afternoon/early evening.

I am not going to lie- I am scared. I don't know how much more I can handle. All Tim and I want is a little bit of normalcy, and it's not looking like we are going to get it anytime soon. My dad told me today that our lives are never going to be "normal." He's absolutely right.

Despite the reality of what our normal is, our hearts are hurting. I think we got our hopes up that after the transplant life would be exactly how we wanted it to be. Max would be healthy and things would go swimmingly with the new kidney. It was a perfect match after all. I need to stop getting my hopes up so high- maybe life wouldn't be so disappointing.